Lots of Bots

I have noticed that a lot of the times when I play Splinterlands I get put up against a Bot. They are not hard to spot - especially "Eneminers" and "RUSXX-BOT".

I also get the fact that (especially in the early days when there were not as many players) that bots meant that there were always opponents to play without having to wait too long.

I also get the fact that for every account, you have to pay to get a spellbook, so that the upfront capital has gone to help develop Splinterlands.

Having played for 3 or 4 months now, I am finding that I am being priced out of the market. I used to be able to buy some cards occasionally and level up for under a pound (or dollar). Now it is hard to find decent single cards under that value.

Could a bot help gather in some extra DEC and cards, in order to re-invest into the game? Either using my existing account, or by setting up a new account?

So if you can't beat them, can you join them?

I have done some internet searching, but you can't find a "bot" program readily available (especially for free!).

There is some older code on GitHub, but that relies on you knowing what you are doing with various algorithms.

As far as I understand a bot would need to :

Start a game at a randomly allocated time (e.g. between every 15 and 30 minutes). Quicker than that and your DEC capture rate may fall off a cliff
Based on the Battle Parameters and Mana allocation, scan through past battle history whilst cross-referencing the cards you actually have. When it finds succesful battles with a similar mana point, similar battle parameters, and cards that you have it then selects the team based on that
Battle and hope! Perhaps win a card
Repeat step 1

It is the interaction between the blockchain data (battle parameters, mana, history, and cards held) that escapes my knowledge of coding